Mallotus rhamnifolius (Willd.) Müll.Arg., Linnaea 34: 196 1865. (Syn: Croton nervosus Rottler; Croton reticulatus Willd.; Croton rhamnifolius Willd.; Mallotus micranthus Müll.Arg.; Mallotus rhamnifolius var. ovatifolius Hook.f.; Mallotus zeylanicus Müll.Arg.; Oxydectes reticulata (Willd.) Kuntze); Common name: Buckthorn-Leaved Kamala • Malayalam: pee-tsjerou-ponnagam • Tamil: Marai-Yirdiyam • Telugu: Konda-Kunkumu Large shrubs; young parts densely brown tomentose. Leaves opposite or alternate, 7-16 x 3.5-6.5 cm, ovate-lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, base cuneate or subrounded, apex acuminate, glabrous above, finely pubescent and yellow-glandular below, basally 3-ribbed; petiole to 10 cm long. Spikes terminal, unbranched, 8-15 cm long. Male flowers distantly fascicled, 1-2 mm across; tepals 1-seriate, splitting to 3-5 valves; stamens many. Female flowers 1.5-2 mm across; tepals 5, lanceolate; ovary 3-celled; styles 3, spreading. Capsule 3-4 mm across, 3-valvular, brown stellate-tomentose. Seeds c. 2 mm across, globose. Flowering and fruiting: August-December Semi-evergreen forests, also in the plains Peninsular India and Sri Lanka
Please help me in identifying this small tree. Leaf: about 20 cm long Habitat: riparian and semi-evergreen forests Alt.: 700-800 m asl Date: 03 Oct 2013 Place: Vellimalai RF, Theni dist., TN I do not recognize as an Euphorbiacea Mallotus rhamnoides I think correct name may be Mallotus rhamnifolius (Willd.) Müll.Arg. My bad, the correct name is Mallotus rhamnifolius. Thank you for the correction
Found in Auroville Botanical Garden. I think the identity is correct. Yes to me. what does rhamnifolius mean. i cant find the translation rhamnifolius = Rhamnus-like leaves. Thorny / Prickly ?? Neither thorny nor prickly. rhamnus= is all greek to me, 🙂 Yes …, The origin is Greek only, with mutations we now get Raphanus, Rhamnus and so on without any apparent meaning! Possibly … will be able to say better. Any relevance to this meaning ??https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Rhamnus Thank you …, You have shown us the real meaning. I checked the same with the vocabulary in Botanical Latin by Stearn but no meaning is given as such but it is shown how it got mutated from Greek and adopted subsequently in Latin. thank you … i had seen /read that wiki, but question remains since rhamnifolius = leaves like rhamnus. googling for” Rhamnaceae leaves”. rhamnaceae does not have any unique leaves. we get this right at the top. they can even be small flat leaves or transformed into thorns!! i qoute…. from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhamnaceae ” Leaves of Rhamnaceae family members are simple, i.e., the leaf blades are not divided into smaller leaflets.[2] Leaves can be either alternate and spiraling, or opposite. Stipules are present. These leaves are modified into spines in many genera, in some (e.g. Paliurus spina-christi and Colletia cruciata) spectacularly so. Colletia stands out by having two axillary buds instead of one, one developing into a thorn, the other one into a shoot. ” end quote Does this mallotus leaf do all that????? so wisdom of the person giving this mallotus a name perhaps had something special in mind? or was in a rush, and this is all he could think of.. we will never know until someone renames it more logically and is accepted, I will have to accept it, faults and all. OR may be if someone who is studying the life history of Mallotus rhamnifolius. sees these sort of variations or transformations of the leaves. OR if the original paper describing the name be traced and translated from its latin, it could show us the reason. Art , science and rhetoric in/of botany is very interesting |
Mallotus rhamnifolius
Updated on December 24, 2024